One type of rotary electric machines includes at least one-phase stator winding of a stator, a field winding of a rotor, a rectifier including at least one switching element as at least one rectifying element, and a regulator to which an output end of the at least one-phase stator winding is connected. The regulator performs, for example, a power generation task as follows. Specifically, the regulator energizes the field winding of the rotor to magnetize poles of the rotor when the rotor is rotating, thus generating a rotating magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field induces at least one-phase AC power in the at least one-phase stator winding. The regulator controls on-off operations of the at least one switching element, thus rectifying the at least one-phase AC power to DC power, thus outputting the DC power.
Particularly, a regulator of a rotary electric machine of this type, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-90454, detects rotation of the rotor based on at least one-phase voltage across the at least one-phase stator winding, and controls how to energize the field winding based on the detected results of rotation of the rotor. The regulator is connected to an ECU serving as an external controller via a communication line. This connection permits the ECU to instruct the regulator to
(1) Start the power generation task
(2) Control a level of the DC power output from the rotary electric machine during the power generation task.